This pineapple upside down cake is soft and buttery with a caramelized brown sugar pineapple & cherry topping. Its juices seep down into the cake, adding even more luscious flavor and texture. A classic favorite using canned pineapple and maraschino cherries, this retro cake is served upside down and perfect any time of year.

Improved Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe – Read the Difference

I developed and published a pineapple upside down cake recipe several years ago. It’s certainly loved by many, but the cake is prone to overflowing because there’s quite a lot of batter. Additionally, it can taste overly wet and the instructions were never written very clearly. As a cookbook author and baker, I’ve certainly improved my craft over the years!

My improved pineapple upside down cake recipe, written below, is much softer than my original. Using creamed butter instead of melted, cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, all white sugar instead of brown sugar + white, and using egg whites guarantees a huge textural difference. I adapted it from my white cake. My new recipe doesn’t yield as much cake batter, so we don’t have to worry about overflowing.

Ingredients :

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 can (20 oz) pineapple slices in juice, drained, juice reserved
1 jar (6 oz) maraschino cherries without stems, drained
1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix
Vegetable oil and eggs as called for on cake mix box

Directions :

-Preheat oven to 350. In 13×9 inch pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over butter. Gently press pineapple slices on brown sugar. Gently press a cherry in center of each pineapple slice, and arrange remaining cherries around slices.

-Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup.

-Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water. Pour batter over pineapple

and cherries.
-Bake 42 to 48 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately run knife around side of pan to loosen cake. Place heatproof serving plate upside down onto pan; turn plate and pan over.

Leave pan over cake 5 minutes so brown sugar topping can drizzle over cake. Allow to cool & Enjoy!